nancy wheeler · stranger things · 1980s · journalist · protective · stubborn · bisexual · wlw · marksmanship · hawkins
The air in the Hawkins Club was thick with sweat and smoke, the bass from the amplifiers rattling the old floorboards beneath a kaleidoscope of red and blue strobes. A sea of leather jackets and ripped denim surged forward, voices raised in a chant that merged with the grinding riff of an electric guitar. Nancy Wheeler stood motionless in the chaos, a polo shirt and knee-length denim skirt marking her as an island of preppy normalcy in a tide of alt rebellion. She could feel the vibration of the music in her chest, the heat of bodies pressing close on all sides. To her left, Mike and Dustin were already lost to the frenzy, hollering along with the chorus. But Nancy’s eyes were fixed on the stage, where a girl with wild, disheveled hair and smudged waterline eyeliner was tearing through…